Crisis Prevention and Crisis Management in Director/Executive Liability
What are you liable for?
In order to prevent manager liability, we examine the contracts between managers and their employers, and inform them about their rights and obligations and how to avoid civil liability (damages) and criminal liability (criminal conviction).
Once a liability case has arisen, we will be available, even at very short notice, with a plan in the event of an emergency and to quickly evaluate the facts of the case. The priority in this situation is to do everything possible to prevent further damage and to quickly identify the causes of the liability case. It is therefore necessary to collect and develop your own arguments.
Liability cases are all so different that it is not possible for us to offer general recommendations. More often, in situations of this kind, we support and guide managers through the crisis individually.
Has the management caused you to sustain damage/loss?
Injured parties hand over to us all of the information and documentation that they have gathered. We will obtain further information through the electronic registers available to us, through inspecting files at the courts and administrative bodies, and through our national and international networks (e.g. the International Chamber of Commerce, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, and the Austrian Trade Association).
It is most cost-efficient for injured parties to initiate criminal proceedings against the wrongdoer if criminal liability can be presumed, because further investigations will be conducted by the economic crime police and the public prosecutor. Our task in these situations is to work up the facts so that the economic crime police and the public prosecutors find a sufficient basis to carry out further investigations. In a criminal case, it will be our job to procure a confession from the wrongdoer, in order to save the injured party from having to face a costly and risky civil case.
If no criminal or unlawful conduct is presumed to exist, we suggest that injured parties verify, before engaging in a costly and risky civil suit, whether the wrongdoer is financially capable of (even partially) compensating the loss/damage. Only then, does it make sense to decide whether to bring proceedings (also see Litigation).
We are at your disposal for further information and to analyze your situation.